For decades, psychologists regarded perception and affect as distinct processes. It was assumed that the perceptual system sees visual information and emotional networks evaluate affective properties. The applicant's research shows, however, that these processes are not so separable, and that some affective components are in fact intimately tied to perceptual processing (Lebrecht, S., Bar, M., Barrett, L. F. & Tarr, M. J. Micro-Valences: Perceiving Affective Valence in Everyday Objects. Frontiers in Psychology 3, (2012)). Applicant has shown that valence—the dimension of affect that represents positive to negative (Russell, J. A. A circumplex model of affect. Journal of personality and social psychology 39, 1161-1178 (1980))—is seen in the majority of visual information, and coded as part of the perceptual representation. Applicant has shown that valence perception is derived from a combination of low-level perceptual features and related associations, or highly similar features that results in an overall gist which the brain then outputs as a single valence “score” that influences choice behavior.
The second fundamental idea underlying this work is that valence does not need to be strong or obvious to exert an effect on behavior. Most researchers typically study strongly affective objects and scenes (Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E. & Schwartz, J. L. Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: the implicit association test. J Pers Soc Psychol 74, 1464-1480 (1998); Avero, P. & Calvo, M. G. Affective priming with pictures of emotional scenes: the role of perceptual similarity and category relatedness. Span J Psychol 9, 10-18 (2006); Calvo, M. G. & Avero, P. Affective priming of emotional pictures in parafoveal vision: Left visual field advantage. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 8, 41 (2008); Rudrauf, D., David, O., Lachaux, J. P., Kovach, C. K., et al. Rapid interactions between the ventral visual stream and emotion-related structures rely on a two-pathway architecture. J Neurosci 28, 2793-2803 (2008); Colibazzi, T., Posner, J., Wang, Z., Gorman, D., et al. Neural systems subserving valence and arousal during the experience of induced emotions. Emotion 10, 377-389 (2010); Weierich, M. R., Wright, C. I., Negreira, A., Dickerson, B. C. & Barrett, L. F. Novelty as a dimension in the affective brain. Neuroimage 49, 2871-2878 (2010)). While this is helpful for anchoring affective perception, it tells little about the typical objects encountered in everyday life. Individual's perceive valence in almost all visual information that they encounter, and objects typically regarded as “neutral” by affective researchers in fact automatically generate the perception of a “micro”-valence. This work was confirmed by an integrated mind and brain approach that included a series of perceptual, cognitive, and neuroimaging paradigms. Applicant was able to successfully demonstrate that (a) one can measure an individual's perception of micro-valence, (b) it relates to choice, (c) it is coded by the same neural mechanisms that code for strongly affective objects, and (d) the valence is processed by regions that code exclusively for objects (Lebrecht, S. & Tarr, M. Defining an object's micro-valence through implicit measures. Journal of Vision 10, 966 (2010); Lebrecht, S., Bar, M., Sheinberg, D. L. & Tarr, M. J. Micro-Valence: Nominally neutral visual objects have affective valence. Journal of Vision 11, 856-856 (2011); Lebrecht, S., Johnson, D. & Tarr, M. J. [in revision] The Affective Lexical Priming Score. Psychological Methods).
Through behavioral experiments, Applicant has found that there is a strong consensus in valence perception across a constrained demographic. This remarkable consensus in the perception of objects previously regarded as “neutral” offers significant potential for the field of consumer behavior. The evidence that valence perception operates on a continuum that can be quantified was uncovered during a subsequent fMRI experiment. Of particular interest, Applicant found that the perception of micro-valence is coded by the same neural system that codes for strong valence. This suggests that valence strength may be organized topologically. The Region of Interest (ROI) analysis has also shown how the perception of valence varies as a function of percent signal change.
In recent years, the online video landscape has evolved significantly from primarily featuring user-generated content to delivering more premium-content videos such as TV episodes, news clips, and full-length movies identical to what a user would otherwise watch on TV. Growth in the amount of professionally-produced content available online has led to a parallel increase in video length, creating more opportunity for pre-roll and in-stream video ads; Advertisers have already started to take advantage. While YouTube® continues to dominate the online video market in terms of total videos viewed each month, for twenty-four consecutive months since June 2010, Hulu®, the leading platform for premium content, generated the highest number of video ad views every month according to comScore® (“ComScore Launches Video Metrix 2.0 to Measure Evolving Web Video Landscape.” ComScore announces improvements to video measurement service and releases Video Metrix rankings for June 2010. Jul. 15, 2010. comScore. Web. 15 Jun. 2012, http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/7/comScore_Launches_Video_Metrix_2.0_to_Measure_Evolving_Web_Video_Landscape). Since the number of long-form videos online is expected to continue to grow substantially in coming years, a similar increase in the number of in-stream video ads is likely.
While a massive market opportunity lies in the digital advertising space, the opportunity coming from the use of digital video in the web commerce industry should not be overlooked. Digital video is now being used for product demonstrations at the point of purchase, for example. As online spending and competition grows, these types of videos are already providing a competitive edge—internet retailers that offer product videos have seen increased sales and decreased returns for products with video descriptions. In 2009, the online shoe-selling powerhouse Zappos.com® reported increased sales ranging from 6-30% for products that had a video description (Changing the Way You Shop for Shoes. Interview with Zappos.com's Senior Manager Rico Nasol on how the retailer is using streaming video to boost sales. Video. Streaming Media West: FOXBusiness.com, Dec. 4, 2009. http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/3951649/changing-the-wayyou-shop-for-shoes/).